Lighting Candles

 

A man and a woman in the book I'm reading are in an English Cathedral that had escaped Henry VIII's destruction. I don't know yet will they sleep together or not.

He hands her a coin to light a candle and she adds a flickering long white taper to the multi rows of other candles varying in length. 

The passage moved me, more because my husband and I never enter a cathedral without him giving me money to buy a candle to light for my beloved stepmother.

I am not Catholic. 

She was, but she separated from the church when she married my father. They were both divorced.

I was with her, when after my dad died, she was able to take Holy Communion for the first time in two and a half decades. She returned to our pew, tears streaming down her face. I felt honored to be there for her.

She never read the Ugly Step Mother Manual. In the years I knew her, she rebuked me once, the closest to cross she ever was with me. 

What did she say?

"I wish you hadn't put the iron away when it was still warm."

Before I moved to Europe, she spend many summers with me and a few Christmases in Boston. We visited places like Edna Vincent Millay's home. She showed me where she and my father had docked their boat in Camden, Maine. 

We played endless games of gin rummy during her visits to Boston or mine to Florida. What a card shark she was.

Eating out was fun, but what wouldn't I give to have her make a baloney sandwiches with potato chips for lunch.

There's a French Wheel of Fortune. Whether in Florida or Boston we watched it and Jeopardy together. I would love to tell her about the French version.

I invited her to live with me in Switzerland, but she didn't want to leave her home, even though she knew I couldn't take care of her in the same way long distance.

I lost her twice: once to dementia and once to her final death. Her grandson in California and I in Switzerland double teamed to make sure she was cared for. As a Navy veteran, she went into a Veterans Nursing Home. One Valentine's Day she was named queen. Unlike some victims of dementia, she never became nasty, only nicer if possible.

The housekeeper, who watched her before she went into the home, visited her at least twice a week to make sure she was okay. Neighbors who loved her stopped by to see her and reported back to me.

Sometimes when I called, she knew who I was, but I cried each time she said, "If you see Donna-Lane, ask her to visit me.  

There's a 14th century at the end of my street in my French village. Sometimes I will go in and light a candle for her, my own private memorial, my gratitude that she was in my life, a recognition of the faith that she held.

Free Write The Scene

One of the free writers is in France, one in Florida and one in Switzerland. When preparing this for those that follow our free writes, I messed up and copied Rick's twice. Julia took the prompt and it made me homesick for Switzerland. Next month all three writers should be in Switzerland. Do any of you writers out there use our prompts?

 Julia's Free Write

Another one of those days, but I appreciated this one as our drought had simply lasted

Too long!

It kind of looked like one of Switzerland’s famous alp views with a tiny bit of snow underneath the layers of dark gray and very dense clouds covering the Jura chain.

The bench was dry, but I had an umbrella just in case as I enjoyed the view of lake, mounts and clouds.

The sky was a great contrast to my current life, which for once, was not only running smoothly, but where it seemed that I was enjoying an abundance of, metaphorically speaking, blue and sunny skies.

I pondered life’s little quirks and as I arose from my bench and thoughts, I noticed that amongst the gray clouds there was one “peak”. Backlit by the setting sun, it resembled one of my favorite mountains: the Matterhorn.

Julia has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/

Rick's Free Write

Miguel was tired of the rain. No, not just weary. Annoyed.

The rain was unceasing, unrelenting, endless. It pounded on the skylight and ran in torrents through the streets. They were lucky they lived on the highest point in the village or they might have been flooded like the homes along the river.

At first the rain had brought welcome relief from the drought conditions of the past two years – bad enough that water usage had been rationed for swimming pools, car washes and the like.

That was before the deluge, before the 40 days and 40 nights of near-constant drizzle, drip and downright downpour.

The dog absolutely refused to go out the door and had resorted to pissing on the patio under the overhang.

The patio chairs seemed to be warping before our eyes, and there was a shallow swimming pool for snails on the tabletop.

Forget about a fire in the fireplace; the wood would probably never dry out.

Even the seagulls had stopped flying and simply huddled under the eaves.

Miguel used to love to lay in bed, listening to the patter of the gently falling pluie. Now he covered his ears with a pillow. The sound was maddening.

When he awoke the next morning, he heard... silence. Blissful nothing.

He looked out the window toward the mountains and, behold, a sunrise. Okay, some clouds. But actual sunshine!

“I guess we needed it,” he mumbled.

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com  

D-L's Free Write

Leigh opened her eyes in the strange room as she snuggled under the duvet. She had been so tired when she fell into the hotel bed, she'd forgotten to close the curtain.

Outside the sun was trying to hide behind the clouds. Unlike in the valley, no leaves were on the trees, but they swayed in the heavy wind.

Less than 24 hours ago her boss had yelled that she wasn't doing enough. She'd had two weeks of 10 hours days.

Standing up, she yelled back. "I quit," walked out of the office, took her car from the company garage and eased into the bumper-to-bumper traffic along the quai until she came to the autoroute, which was still heavy trafficked. 

She drove East for three hours, took an unknown exit and didn't stop until she reached a mountain village. Like the village the hotel was small, six rooms.

It was quiet except for the wind. No neighbor foot steps as the left for work, no muffled traffic, no car horns.

What she done? Would the company take her back? Would she even ask?

She pulled the duvet up to her chin and fell back asleep. 

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at:. https://dlnelsonwriter.com Her 300 Unsung Women will be published this month.

April 19s - Two Rebellions

 

April 18-19, 1775 

Paul Revere had helped mount the lantern in the old North Church tower. He hadn't seen it from across the river it as the Longfellow poem says, but he did ride out to notify the farmers and shopkeepers in the Lexington/Concord area that General Gage was sending his troops to search for stolen cannons. 

William Dawes also rode through the countryside, but never appeared in a poem. I suspect they did not scream, "The British are coming," but knocked on doors and those occupants rounded up their friends and headed to the old North Bridge.

The Redcoats slogged their way  through the 13 miles between Boston and Concord, some of it through a swamp. Their uniforms were muddy not pristine and their feet must have been wet.

The locals were ready for them. They were fed up with the government's taxes and tariffs be it on tea, stamps or anything else London imposed.

No one knows who fired the first shot. It doesn't really matter. It started a revolution the effects of which are still felt today by the way governments around the world. Powerful kings ruling on whim are in short supply, a good thing.

The initial Minutemen, locals who formed a militia and named because they could be ready in a minute, were about 400 in number against 100 Redcoats. Reinforcements from surrounding towns, villages and Boston joined both sides during the day. 

My ancestor John Sargent was one of the revolutionary soldiers. That's all I know about him. I wish I could talk to him and learn about his life. My three main questions would include what made him finally pick up his musket, what did he think of how America evolved and would he demonstrate against Trump, Musk and today's government.

April 19, 2025

A second demonstration against the government is planned for April 19, 2075. The first April 5th had according to most estimates over a million people, so many times more than the almost 200,000 people living in the colonies in 1775. No muskets this time. No AR-15s. just signs and angry people. 

Angry at how the government was taking away their rights, making life more difficult for them, hurting their pocketbooks, destroying programs that support parts of life that make life better for all such as science research and libraries. 

I don't know what King George III's reaction was when he heard about the rebellion many months later. News was by ship not internet. I know Trump played golf, his version maybe of Nero's fiddling while Rome burned.

If you marched April 5, please come out again. One demonstration won't solve the problems. If you didn't demonstrate April 5, please do on April 19.

S A V E   A M E R I C A 

Note: Minuteman National Park has had a year of programs to commemorate the 250 anniversary of the battles of Concord and Lexington. An reenactment will be held April 19 at Minuteman National Park. Continue what the forefathers started, rebel for freedom and rights.

Fighting Fascism

This is the Place de la Republique, Argelès-sur-mer, a small village in the south of France. Once the Hotel de Ville, it is now a music school. Summer nights, people dance in the square. There are two cafés where people sit and talk. Wednesday and Saturdays the square if filled with stalls selling veggies, clothes, wine, oils, cheeses and more at the marché.

It wasn't always that peaceful.  During two days in April 1942 about 50 women protested the Vichy government. The people of Argelès were French and Catalan. They were laborers, farmers, worked the vineyards, the sea. They still went to the washing shed along the river to wash their clothes. In some houses, animals still lived on the ground floor.

 

In the United States fascism, like a Hydra, has raised many ugly heads. April 5, millions of Americans turned out in all 50 states to fight the many rights and services being destroyed. It varied: abortion, education, social security, libraries, weather services--every aspect of U.S. decent life is under attack.

 

Maybe those 50 women in that tiny village represented the same proportion of the population as those protesting on April 5. They risked their lives. 

 

Those protesting in 50 states might not stand out in the same way as those 50 women but they all stood up against the evil of fascism.

 

What a shame it is a battle still being fought. There's the last line of the Peter, Paul and Mary hit, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, "Oh, when will you ever learn?
Oh, when will you ever learn?"

 

Fighting Fascists-Nothing New

The heart warming demonstration

I'm not the only writer who does this!

 

I found this quote on a card tucked away in a very old journal. I wish I'd written down who said it.I feel that way about many of my characters. 

"Sooner or later, I know that my characters will take charge of the book. They'll turn bossy and opinionated and they'll stop following my instructions. 'You just leave things to us,'" they'll say to me. 'We can manage from here.'"

For me it's as if the characters are sitting on my couch. The say, "You can write it, but I'm not going to do it."

My characters become as real to me as the people I see every day. Minor characters are short-term guests, but people like Annie, who was my main character in all my Third Culture Kid mystery series stay with me forever. Some people thought I saw myself as Annie.

I wish.

She was taller, had real red curly hair, was fluent in English, French, German and Dutch. As a tech writer, she was more technically competent than I ever will be. Both of us did love history, so Annie ended up in various cities with temporary tech writing assignments as she researched different historical events. Sometimes, she handled social issues such as domestic violence, but she always, like Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote, ran across murders.

My husband Rick and I were walking through the Veille Ville in Geneva and as we passed the Hotel de Ville, Rick pointed out a medium tall, curly red head. "There's your Annie," he said.  He was right. She had a sign in French offering free hugs, a very unSwiss thing. I imagined Jean Calvin, who walked those same streets in the 1500s, had he come across her would have had a heart attack.

We accepted the hug. She let us take her photo. An artist friend took the photo and used the image on a clock, my Annie clock that I treasure.

I had four women in Day Care Moms, all of were bossy personalities. I was surprised when Brenda arrived one rainy morning as I was working with Anne-Marie, but not well. Writer Brenda interviewed her as a tool to get into her character. Brenda wanted to be a major part of the book. After typing The End on the umpty umph draft, I imagined all five women who had lived with me over a year packing up their suitcases. I missed them.

Now on my twins novel, because I'm busy with getting 300 Unsung Women published. Lou and Nancy have taken the day care moms' place. I had intended that a sister-in-law was to be a walk on role, but she keeps pushing in, refusing to go back to university, and insisting on working in the company business. 

It isn't the first time that happens. In Murder in Caleb's Landing, a woman who was just supposed to have a cup of coffee turned out to run an underground railroad to help women of domestic violence, which shadowed the underground railroad room found in the basement of the main house in the book. That was a surprise to me, but it made the book stronger.

Sometimes, I think, I'd like to get all my main characters together for a weekend, introducing  them to each other. We could star off with a get together apèro Friday night, meet for breakfast and a workshop Saturday morning, an informal lunch and maybe a tour of Argelès or Geneva, whichever place we are meeting.

Argelès would probably better, it's less expensive and many of my fictional characters do not have the money to travel. 

Meanwhile, I'm reassured by the writing on the card, that other writers or at least one other "live" with their characters.

Becoming Swiss

I wore my green suit that I inherited from my daughter and a black necklace from my grandmother to take my oath as a new Swiss citizen. In a way it made me feel as if they were with me. It had been a long haul. Fifteen years eight months and six days.

My being in Switzerland at all was an accident. Because I'd heard getting work permits was impossible, I hadn't applied in Switzerland. I'd sent over 800 CVs (resumes) to France, Germany and Austria and that was after I started counting.

Getting the IHT for European want ads from the the Out of Town news stand in Harvard Square, I found an ad for a post in Neuchatel, Switzerland for someone who knew French, German and Digital Equipment Corp. I had two of the three, sent a fax, was hired and was given a Permis A. 

After three months I had a Permis B which was held by my employer and after 5 years a Permis C which gave me the right to work anywhere and more.

On the 12th anniversary of moving to Switzerland, on my first day eligible, I filled out the citizenship request form beginning a three-year process of interviews. I cried in relief when it was granted.

The oath taking ceremony was held in Hotel de Ville, constructed in the 1400s. I entered by the stone ramp where in the Middle Ages people rode their horses up to meetings. I was greeted along with 89 other soon-to-be citizens by a man in a medieval costume. 

As we filed into the hall, we tossed our cardboard Permis Cs in a box. Today the Permis are plastic.

On my designated seat was my voting package for the next votation, one of the four each year where citizens wishes are put to an all-country vote. It was complete with my name, address, signature card, information, ballot and postage paid envelope. There were also forms for my identity card and passport to take to my local mairie. 

 As a group we sang the Swiss national anthem. I've a terrible voice. I'd been teased by friends if they heard me sing, the government might change their mind about accepting me.

A few officials made welcoming speech and we took the oath as a group.

Outside the grand hall, there was champagne and a  pain surprise. The layers were salmon, ham, and a local cold cut. Everyone was given a book with photos and the history of the Canton.

Leaving the Hotel de Ville I walked past the hall where the Treaty of Alabama was signed in September 1872 by the Americans and British the final step ending the American Civil War.

I passed one of the old fountains that had been built so people did not have to walk down to the lake and lug it back in the time of Jean Calvin. More were planned by the city fathers, but they did not want to pay for more than one.

As I walked through the streets of old town, the same streets I had walked to go to the oath taking, I felt somewhat different. I was still me, but also I was Swiss.

 

Thank you Maga

 

Thank you Maga for making it possible for Trump to tank the world economy. Over six trillion dollars in losses, the most in 95 years.

Thank you Maga for electing Trump so his tariffs is creating one the largest drops in the stock market not just in the U.S. but around the world.

And thank you Maga for the world-wide recession that is being predicted by people who really know the basics of economics.

And thank you Maga for allowing him to cut back on education grants that means your children will have less learning opportunities.

And thank you for giving him the power to hire so many incompetents like the Secretary of Defense planning strikes on non secure lines. I guess the secretary learned from Hillary.

And thank you Maga for letting him threaten the income of millions of old people.

And thank you Maga for letting him streamline FEMA. Especially thank you to the Maga people in Kentucky who are flooded out. I'm sure you will be able to help yourselves. Those in other states like Florida will have plenty of time to prepare for the next hurricane. 

Thank you Maga for voting for Trump for all the tourist money that won't becoming into the U.S. because people are afraid of going through U.S. customs and being arrested or deported.

Thank you Maga for voting for Trump for the fired scientists who will leave the country and take their knowledge and ideas to other countries. Other countries are thrilled to have them. There's nothing like a good brain drain to make a country better, you think?

Thank you Maga for all the American-made products that won't be purchased because they are American. 

Thank you Maga for the Trump tariffs that once again will hurt American farmers who will lose their international markets.

Thank you Maga for Trump whose tariffs will add thousand of dollars to the price of a car because the manufacturer had to buy parts that were hit by tariffs.

Thank you Maga for the tariffs that will reduce everyone's 401K. Along with reducing Social Security you won't mind working longer and harder and maybe forever.

 

You guys and gals in the red hats did a great job in helping to destroy the country. U.S. enemies must be thrilled to see how they hurt the country without firing a bullet.

Visit https://dlnelsonwriter.com 

 

 

 

 

The Crossing

November 1962

I was about to take a ship from New York to Le Havre, France to join my husband who was stationed in an army band in Germany. A year before, I was a college freshman not allowed by my over-protective mother to even visit a friend in Attleboro, MA less than an hour from my home.

I had met my father's family for the first time at a shower where all my aunts, uncles and cousins gave me cash-filled envelopes attached to a model ship. As I opened each envelope and said thank you to Uncle...and Aunt...I scanned the faces until someone reacted.

My father and stepmom drove me to New York City from Scituate, MA. My dad was so excited. He adored boats and was building a 38-foot cabin cruiser in his back yard.

As was the custom of the day, everyone was dressed up. My stepmom even wore her mink collar. Heels and stockings were required. 

My dad saw that my much-traveled trunk, a gift from my stepmom's father, was properly stored aboard. I knew as we walked the deck, looking for my economy stateroom, he would give anything to be going too.

Once installed in my stateroom (no window) my dad left me with my stepmom . He reappeared with a German passenger, about my age. Heidi was an army wife going to join her new husband. She had moved from Germany to live in America and was less than happy at going back. I noticed she wore white shoes, something that was a no-no after Labor Day where I grew up.

My dad had arranged the table where we would eat and made sure I knew how to reach the lifeboat that I was assigned to. Heidi and I chatted through the drill later that afternoon.

Reluctantly I had a final hug with my parents, the parting whistles blew, the tug boat pulled the ship, and I watched the Statue of Liberty disappear.

Meals were wonderful. The other people at our table were older, but not old. We would share all meals with them.

There was a library where I selected reading matter. At the movie theater I watched Gypsy. A number of young officer wives were traveling first class but snuck down to economy to join us because we were more fun, especially at night when a band played. We danced and danced. A German young man named Dieter feel in love with Ellie, an Army wife, who didn't reciprocate. I listen to him describe a broken heart.

A woman, maybe in her sixties who got so drunk each night that she had to helped to her stateroom. I felt sorry for her while relishing my youth and future.

A storm hit on our third night. The band skidded across the dance floor. We were told to return to our cabins. We needed to hold the side ropes as we made our way. The next day I was sea sick, but when we outran the storm, I recovered.

Coming to the green Irish coast, row boats met us with Irishmen selling Irish knit sweaters. I did not have the funds to buy one.

A stop in the U.K. was followed by crossing the English channel and lots of tossing, but then all was calm in the Le Havre port. Economy passengers were the last ones off, but the boat train taking us to Paris waited.

The train ride to Paris was exciting as I imagined what it had been like when the Allies fought their way through the German troops. 

I managed to buy train tickets in Paris and then in Nancy before I stepped off the train in Stuttgart into my husband's arms. 

For someone who wasn't allowed into Boston, who didn't speak French, who didn't understand the 24-hour clock, who had a six hour wait in a train station, and said no to a Frenchman who wanted me to go home with him, I managed it all, although the Englishman, who worked with baggage in Paris, put me in a taxi with directions to the driver to take me directly and not run up the bill was a help.

For the rest of my life whenever I see movie or a TV program on a luxury liner, I realized that I had lived the experience and was grateful. All other crossings of the Atlantic have been by plane.

Visit D-L's website https://dlnelsonwriter.com
 

Demonstrations-YES!

 

In the mid 80s when I was writing The Card, a character was caught in the 1968 student-led Parisian riots. I spent hours and hours at the Brookline, MA library going through microfilm (pre-internet) trying to glean enough information on the riot. I used my imagination to write it.

Today, I was reading Paris Notebooks by Mavis Gallant who wrote a day-by-day account and mentioned Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a red-headed instigator of the demonstrations. Last night Cohn-Bendit, at 79 and white-haired was on French television. He'd been active in politics throughout his life. Part of me felt smug that everything I wrote could have happened, but had I had Gallant's first-hand accounts, I could have added so many details.

The 1968 demonstrations were a watershed moment in French politics. 

April 5, demonstrations are scheduled all over the U.S. Find one near you and go. The only way to stop the destruction of the good things in the U.S. is with action. Make April 5th a watershed moment in the U.S.

 

 

Free Write - Empty Chairs in the Sun

 

This week's Free Write still has three writers in two different countries. Rick's prompt was a photo was taken in our small French village, but the country isn't important. It is the chance to poke one's creativity encouraging it to slip into other aspect of our  creative lives. Anyone reading this might want to try a Free Write. If you want to share it, please do.

Rick's Free Write 

Empty chairs, empty tables.

Reminds me of a Les Miserables song after so many young men had died in a failed revolution.

But these are peaceful empty. A Sunday afternoon in a quiet village in the south of France. Normal. Tranquil.

The next morning these chairs will be filled with people talking, sharing their lives over café, thé and chocolat chaud. If the wind is down and the sun is out, the umbrellas will be up.

Sundays are my favorite in the village. Fewer people, fewer cars. Mostly dog walkers. Maybe kids playing football on the church plaza (unaware it used to be a graveyard).

Sunday afternoon used to be the time we caught up on news from our birth country through the talk shows. But they have become nauseating since the election as we witness the country’s accelerating destruction.

We think we are ‘safe’ in our little out-of-the-way enclave. But are we? Will there be war in Europe? Will the forces of evil stimulate civil unrest that reaches even us?

It would be wonderful to imagine we are immune, living in a bubble of the past, carefree… but is there any such place on the earth anymore?

Will these tables fill with happy people again? Or will they remain empty through intimidation and fear?

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com 

D-L's Free Write

Toni walked by the tea room's outdoor chairs and tables. The sun was bright. No one was sitting there. The tramontane was blowing at full force sending leaves racing down the street. 

It had been five years since she been there. She and Paul had had coffees after their divorce hearing.

It had been a friendly divorce, if such a thing was possible. She and Paul had thought they'd found their life's partners in each other. The problem was they wanted different lives.

Paul loved his florist shop, owned first by his grandparents and parents. It was part of village life. Toni found herself sneezing when she was near many of the flowers.

She wanted to be a game develop and when she had a chance to work with two friends from her tech school, she couldn't pass it up,

Unfortunately the job required a move to Paris, or made not unfortunately because she loved Paris.

Today, she had not planned to get off the Paris-Barcelona train where she'd left her marriage. Something seemed to propel her when the train stopped at the station.

In the last five years some stores had changed. Some were the same. So many espressos had been shared by her and Paul while sitting on those chairs as they people watched.

She peeked inside. She saw the back of Paul's head. He was holding the hand of a very pretty woman as he used to hold hers.

On the way back to the train station she felt sad at what wasn't yet happy they'd made the right decision.

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at:. https://dlnelsonwriter.com 

 Julia's Free Write

It was a beautiful sunny day.

The terrace lay waiting, every chair and every table still empty.

Who would come to sit and enjoy a coffee or tea?

Who a snack and a glass of wine?

Who perhaps a full meal?

It looked to be a great place also for people watching – a small Pedestrian zone.

Oh, here comes the first client of the day: the chap in somber clothing, always with a hat on his head, never a smile for either

The waitress nor the waiter – and just barely a word either, simply the strict minimum: “a glass of white wine, a Chablis, please”.

He is soon followed by the second – a woman in her 50ies, wearing a lovely spring dress, the appropriate handbag, shoes and jewelry,

In truth a bit fancy for this part of town. She orders “a small glass of red wine, the pinot please. And settles in to await a friend.

Her friend duly arrives – an indeterminate 40-something, dressed in very casual slacks, but a nice blouse. She turns out to be a teetotaler so orders only a coffee.

Then comes the young couple, so much in love that they have only eyes for each other. They order a sandwich (after consulting their change) and a soda.

The family is next: loud, boisterous – they order a small meal.

And so it goes until the lonely terrace is full of various individuals

All enjoying their time in the sun in this small town in Southern France.

Julia has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/

What would you do?

 

If someone offered you a choice between taking $1,000 or $50,000 as a gift, no strings attached, which would you select?

I imagine the $50,000.

I don't understand why people say the 1,000 people killed October 7th in Israel gave Israel the right to kill 50,000 people who do not have the right to defend themselves. Not just kill but destroy everything in their lives, starve them, destroy their hospitals.

It's amazing that according to Netanyahu they only bomb where Hamas is hiding. 

Growing up, I learned about the Holocaust. I believed Israel had a chance to build a place free from prosecution. Up until the 1967 War, I thought Israel could do no wrong. Okay, I was naive and really hadn't read much about it.

Only when I was student teaching, did I meet my first Palestinian. She talked about how her family had been displaced, the land Israel had stolen from her family, the limitations forced upon them by Israel.

Moving to Geneva in 1993, I had Palestinian neighbors. One woman taught me and other friends belly dancing followed by great meals.

I met more and more people, not just from Palestinian but also from other countries in the region, especially Egypt and Syria. I was lucky enough to have a neighbor that became a sister-of-choice and spent time with her family in Damascus seeing life through the eyes of people who lived daily with the uncertainty of the region.

In the U.S. if you are pro-Palestinian, you are considered anti-semantic and thus anti-Jewish. People forget that almost all of the people in the area are semantic people. 

Taking a country from one people to give to another is a sure way to breed hatred. I imagine that the Gaza children who survive this war, whose parents and siblings were killed, will have little mercy for Israel. Destruction breeds hatred.

The argument the land belonged to Israel historically is equally sick. Country borders move. They are artificial. I wonder what would happen if everyone in the United States that is living on Indian land was suddenly driven from their homes so Indians could have it back.

There was no way that I could be anything but horrified by the genocide of the Jews during World War II. I am also horrified by the genocide in Gaza even if the numbers are smaller. The Oct. 7th attack was terrible by a group that is fighting back against the Israeli oppression.

1,000 against 50,000 is disproportionate. 

Taking hostages inflamed Israel, understandably, but the hundreds of Arab prisoners in Israel who are held without trial and rough conditions again tips the scale on what is disproportionate.

I'm horrified about the illegal settlements, the unfair rules the Arabs lived under that make it almost impossible to have even the base things that we take for granted. 

Destroying a people does not make anyone safer. It creates more hatred.

I am horrified that if Israel does it, they get carte blanche along with weapons from the U.S. to increase their killing ability. I am horrified about how they treat the Arabs in the area, the breaking of international laws. That people fight back, is totally understandable.

When Americans talk to me about Israel having the right to defend themselves and I ask them what they know about the history, it is next to nothing. Gaza has the right to defend itself too.

I wish everyone of them would invited a Palestinian to dinner and listen to their side of the history over the last decades.

Now merely saying you are pro-Palestiniancin the States, especially if you are not a U.S. citizen can get you deported, denying the speaker's freedom of speech. If you invited Palestinians to your home, and under these current U.S. Administration you are leaving them open to  being grabbed and deported even if they did nothing but have ordinary lives. 

So $1,000 or $50,000...what will it be? Isn't it time to look at both sides? Invite a Palestinian to your home and listen to what they have to say.

P.S. I am not anti-Jewish, but I am anti the atrocities of the Israeli government.

 

Holding My Own?

 

Rick's parking karma held as he slipped into the last spot in the bibliothèque parking. I looked up to see pretty blue shutters and flowers in a house. The wall is on a house that is probably at least 300 years old. It was more than a pretty window. It was a reminder that not everything in this world is coming apart.

In the center of our French village, the houses, including ours, are 300-400 years old. The ground floors used to hold goats, cows and chickens, but are now modern living and dining rooms and kitchens. The streets are narrow and parking is non-existent which is why we search public parking. 

I've been fighting with myself against frustration and depression about the destruction of my birth country by incompetent, demented, immoral people. There are people too afraid to fight back, or too greedy to do what is right. I feel anger too at the people who voted them in, for not seeing what was there if they'd just taken the time to look.

In our village, we find many French who want to talk about Trump, usually with disgust. Canadians, Danes, Swedes, Germans, Brits ask us if we are relieved that we are no longer American. They were anti-Trump during his first administration. Now they express shock that America could sink so low so fast.

This tiny village has a long history of pain from bad rulers. It was territory that went back and forth between French, Spanish and Catalan aristocracy over the centuries. Towers still sit on mountain tops to help who ever was in power to see the latest invasion. 

Power struggles aren't new. Fighting against them isn't new.

In 1939 the 3000+ village residents became 103,000 as people crossed the Pryenees, fleeing Franco. These refugees were put in concentration camps along the beach. The bad treatment of refugees and immigrants is not new.

The village did not submit easily. Women protested in April 1942. An elderly man, who lived through it, told me how there were resistance fighters living in the village. He lived on the renamed rue de Resistance.

We tried going off grid to restoke our morale, but when we're on our computer information about evil acts of the administration sneak in. Then we give in and check news in France, England, Switzerland, U.S. and sometimes Germany. We see old and new frightening stories. I will look at Fox News on the internet and see a totally different world to what other news sources are reporting adding to my pain, fear, frustration at the lies and manipulation.

I am trying to hold on to hope for sanity, by hanging on to what is good in my little village: our friends, local and international, the wonderful fruits and vegetables, our pup, the smell of bread baking from the boulangeries, the cafés where we can sit and people watch, chatting with those walking by. There is the surprise of a beautiful window when we lucked out by finding a parking place. It helps, but it is not enough.

Hopefully, the village, the U.S., the world will survive the maniacs in D.C. and those enabling them, just as this village has survived everything over the centuries and too many battles to list here.  

I wish I could do more. Making phone calls, sending emails and writing essays isn't enough. On April 5, I wish I could be on Boston Common, in front of the State House where my grandfather did engineering repairs in the early 1900s. 

Can the people who failed to see the danger before November 5 see it now and act?

Will Republicans develop backbones and stop bleating their approval?

Will the many Americans who will suffer, and suffer they will even more than now, fight back?

Will the Army refuse to fight if America attacks other countries Putin-like? 

Meanwhile I will try and channel my pain, frustration, disgust, fear of what the U.S. is becoming.  

Those shutters are a lovely jade of blue. The flowers mean spring is coming. My dog wants to sit on my lap. The weeks of rain seems to have stopped lessening the drought. 

Hang on, hang on, hang on. 

Like all bad governments, rulers, things will change. Don't think about the price in lives ruined, think of the shutters which are a lovely shade of...

Check out D-L's website: https://dlnelsonwriter.com

 

 

 

My Russian Slippers

My Russian slippers are beginning to wear out. After 10+ years of wear, that's not a surprise. The blue mark comes from dropping my fountain pen on one of them.

They were given to me when I visited a Russian friend in St. Petersburg, something I had never thought I'd do. Like many of my friends, her family substituted slippers for shoes in the house. As a good hostess, she'd bought slippers for Rick and me.

Our friendship had started in Geneva on a beautiful day with a not too warm, not too cold day, a blue sky as a backdrop to Mont Blanc's snow tops, much too beautiful to take a bus. I was walking to the train station through the UN complex of alphabet agencies when a woman asked directions to the train station.

She was a Russian attending a conference. Her English was as good, if not better than mine. We walked together chatting the entire way. At the station she was to take a train and I had errands. We exchanged emails.

We began a correspondence and found a lot in common: one child each, a lover of reading literature and history, food. She invited me to St. Petersburg, which I delayed. A few years went by. After I married, she invited my husband and me to visit.

We applied for VISAs. Interesting that his as an American was about $125. Mine as a Swiss, was charged at about $25.

She met us at the St. Petersburg airport. We stayed in her flat meeting her son, husband and cats.

The woman was determined to share the city she loved and had an itinerary that included churches, famous building, museums, the incredible subway, a river ride, a classical ballet and an evening of folk dancing and a boat trip on the river. Some meals we had at home including a wonderful cucumber salad. She gave me the recipe, some meals were at restaurants. We didn't eat at the McDonald's.

We began to understand the Russian letters.  

I've never seen so much gold leaf and beautiful art work from small icons to huge statues. My friend, who knew history, gave me enough background that had I recorded it, I could have given professional tours to tourists. 

 

The metro stations were works of arts in themselves.

She took me to a book store, where my first novel Chickpea Lover: Not a Cookbook was for sale. After the Russian Cosmopolitan had given it a good review it had been on the best seller list for a week or so I was told.

Her knowledge of Russian history was a gift. One of the thrills of the trip was to see the room where Rasputin was fed cyanide. We stood by the door where he escaped to jump in the Neva river. It is one thing to read about history, but another to stand where it happened.

Seeing where Fydor Dostoevsky wrote The Brothers Karamazov was thrill. As a writer I like to be where books were written as if their talent vibes in the wall will fill my brain and nerves to my fingertips.

Because we were with a native, we had experiences that would never have happened otherwise.

After the ballet, our hostess did not like the look of the taxi drivers. "Wait here," she said.

She ran into the street and pulled a driver, a stranger over then waved for us to get in the car. She had negotiated a price with him to take us home. I tried to imagine doing that in Boston, Geneva or any other major city. I couldn't imagine it in our little French village either.

My life amazes me sometime. I bumble into things that end up giving me incredible experiences.  

Dusty pink is my favorite color. The slippers trim is dusty pink. No matter what the color is, I put them on and walk with memories.

 

 

 

Uncle Sam Needs You

Uncle Sam doesn't just want you, he needs you to save the country from the current destruction being forced on the United States by Trump, Musk and the scared and/or immoral or amoral Republicans.

 

According to one survey, only 13% of Americans who did not vote in the last presidential election like what is happening. Had the other 87% who didn't vote and disapprove of what is happening, the United States, the world and their economies would not be in the mess they are in.

 

What can you do? Fight back within your means of time, health and energy. 

 

How? Where do you go?

 

On April 5th, there are massive rallies planned across the country via a coalition of 83 organizations. This includes international labor unions like CWA (https://cwa-union.org/) and SEIU (www.seiu.org), as well as progressive groups like MoveOn (https://front.moveon.org), Indivisible (https://indivisible.org/groups), and DemCast (https://demcast.com). The event, billed as “Hands Off!” currently has a list of 514 actions planned.

 

DEMONSTRATIONS

 

April 5 - Hands Off demonstrations are planned in many U.S. Cities supported by a large number of organizations some of which include:

• https://theblop.org/ lists many of the protests.
• www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/764476/
• www.womensmarch.com/initiatives/peoples-veto-day-washington-d-c 
• https://portside.org/2025-03-15/why-were-mobilizing-april-5th
• https://earthlaw.substack.com/p/hands-off-march-on-dc-april-5th 
• https://front.moveon.org 
• https://cwa-union.org
  
• https://redwineblue.controlshift.app/events/april-5th-demonstration
• Social Security Works @socialsecurityworks.org
  

GOVERNMENT

 

Start by following every bill in Congress that will hurt people such as changing medicare, social security, food stamps, civil rights. For anything you think is unjust call your senator/congressman. They probably won't be happy to hear from you.

 

SENATORS

https://www.senate.gov

 

Become familiar with the site.

Far left corner under Senators find your Senators.

Call or email and leave a message. That is both Republican and Democrats.

If you want to get word to a Senator in a state where you don't live, find a zipcode from that state and put it into the contact form. 

 

REPRESENTATIVES

https://www.house.gov

 

Far left corner under Representatives find yours

Call or email. 

Use a zip code in their district even if it isn't yours

Check legislative activity (Today's message - There is no legislative activity at this time) 

Look through the site to see what is important. Some committees can be seen live.

Follow bills that can hurt you and other Americans 

If you are not in a Representatives district find a zip code in their district and put that in.

 

TOWN HALLS

Find out which Congressmen and Senators are holding Town Halls.

Go and tell them what you think whether it is your party or not.

 

        ORGANIZATIONS

 

Support organizations on issues that are important to you. It is not possible to support them all, but identify the issues you care about and work with those fighting fort hem. Some organizations fight for several causes. 

 

Below is a list of  many groups that are working to preserve what Trump and Musk are trying to do away with.                                                                                                                 

BOOK BANS

 

UNITE AGAINST BOOK BANS  https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/ 

 

On Monday, April 7, Unite Against Book Bans will ask readers around the country to raise their voices online and in person for the third annual Right to Read Day.

                                                                                                                                           

CIVIL RIGHTS

AMNESTY  www.amnesty.org                                                                                                                   

Amnesty International USA has more than a million members and activists in all 50 states.They work to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

NAACP www.naacp.org 

 

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the longest-serving organization dedicated to fighting for civil rights of people of color.

PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY www.peoplefor.org 

 

People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. For more than four decades, they have been dedicated to making the promise of America real and where basic rights and freedoms are upheld for all, not just the wealthy and the powerful. 

GUN SAFETY

EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY  https://everytown.org

They push for common-sense gun control legislation by lobbying lawmakers and fighting against extreme NRA proposals. 

IMMIGRATION

IMMIGRATION IMPACT  https://immigrationimpact.com

A project of the American Immigration Council, this organization lobbies against deportation policy both from the White House and the halls of Congress.

YOUNG CENTER FOR IMMIGRANT CHILDREN'S RIGHTS https://theyoungcenter.org

 An organization focused on protecting the children of immigrants and fighting against deportation and family separation.

LEGAL

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION  https://www.aclu.org

A nonprofit assisting in civil rights legal cases including abortion care, trans people's right to live freely, and people's right to vote. It also hosts the Drag Defense Fund.

AIJUSTICE     www.aijustice.org                                                                                                        

Americans for Immigrant Justice, a nonprofit law firm, fighting for justice for immigrants through a combination of direct representation, impact litigation, advocacy, and outreach.

CAIR  www.cair.com 

Works to educate the public on mainstream Islamic faith and prevent legal obstructions to their rights, including policies proposed and enacted by Trump's first administration.

LAMBDA LEGAL  www.lambdalegal.org

For over 40 years, Lambda Legal has led the way in advocating for the legal rights of HIV-positive and LGBTQ+ people.

SOUTHERN LAW POVERTY CENTER www.splcenter.org

A nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights, fighting to strengthen democracy, counter white supremacy, end mass incarceration, and eradicate racial inequality in the American South.

LGBTQ

 

ADVOCATE www.advocate.com 

 

For those who are able to give, here are 26 groups whose work is going to be critical during a second Trump administration that you can donate to. They say if you can't contribute money, they give a list and other ways to contribute. 

 

GENDERCOOL https://gendercool.org

 

A public outreach campaign made up of "champions" – trans youth who work tirelessly to transform the narrative surrounding them.

GLAAD  www.glaad.org                                                                            

A media monitoring organization focused on inspiring cultural change to ensure fair, accurate, and inclusive representation of LGBTQ+ people.

ORAM  www.oramrefugee.org 

It provides legal assistance, advances economic inclusion through livelihood programs, champions the rights of LGBTIQ asylum seekers and refugees on the global stage and provides critical emergency response to under-served communities.

SHERLOCK'S HOME FOUNDATION https://sherlockshomes.org 

The Sherlock's Homes Foundation provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system, for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves.

SYLVIA RIVERA LAW PROJECT https://srlp.org 

SRLP seeks to guarantee people's freedom to self-determine and express their gender identity, fighting for both financial and legal empowerment for everybody across the spectrum of gender.

THE TRANSGENDER LAW CENTER https://transgenderlawcenter.org

The largest national, trans-led organization fights to change law, policy, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression.

HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN https://www.hrc.org

 

HRC lobbies for queer rights and candidates, fighting to "ensure that all LGBTQ+ people, and particularly those of us who are trans, people of color and HIV+, are treated as full and equal citizens."

 

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH (ABORTION)

ELEVATED ACCESS  www.elevatedaccess.org

A nonprofit dedicated to helping patients receive reproductive health care, offering flights at no cost to those who must travel for abortions.

MIDWEST ACCESS COALITION (MAC)  www.midwestaccesscoalition.org 

An abortion fund helping people traveling to, from, and within the Midwest to access safe and legal abortions.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD https.plannedparenthood.org

 

A nonprofit organization providing reproductive and sexual healthcare and sexual education, including abortions and birth control. 

 

TRAINING

Emily's List  www.emilyslist.org

Trains Democratic women (who are pro-choice) in the basics of running for office, from school board to senator. The group had a hand in getting Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Maggie Hassan elected.

WRITERS 

 PEN https://pen.org

 

PEN America wants to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide, championing the freedom to write. It recognizes the power words to transform the world by uniting writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that making it possible. 

PROPUBLICA  www.propublica.org 

A nonprofit model to produce and disseminate investigative reporting. It has continuously fact-checked the Trump Administration to dispel the misinformation.